We figured out how to hack Google Search
I just changed some descriptions and now you can actually find me online lol
Co-written by Isa—check out his blog here.
During the past few weeks, I've been on a quest to fix my digital presence. Before July, there was literally no way to find me online…
…which didn't really make sense. I’ve creating content for a few years, shouldn't Google just automatically figure out who I am?
Turns out there's much more to it than that.
So, my friend Isa and I got to work researching SEO, and what we found was surprising...
There's actually ways to directly tell Google what to show the world about you.
And this doesn’t just work for people, but for recipes, blogs, small businesses, organizations, and more.
After implementing only a small portion of these, I've already started to see really good results.
So, without further ado, here’s what we learned:
Small note: the research below has been curated by humans and not AI. We can all go to ChatGPT and ask it SEO tips, nothing special about that.
To bring more people to your website and general brand/name, you need to take advantage of two types of SEO:
On-Page SEO:
Optimization of elements within your website to improve search engine rankings and user experience.
Optimize the website:
Keyword Research: Identify keywords related to your name and brand. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs. Also don’t just use popular ones, use some niche tags have better conversion rates (people genuinely looking for some of your work)
https://ahrefs.com/free-seo-tools These are the free tools
https://ads.google.com/intl/en_us/home/tools/keyword-planner/
Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Make sure your name and brand are included in the title tags and meta descriptions of your website pages. Increases click-through rates on search engine results pages because it helps search engines understand and display your name.
Title Tags:
Definition: The HTML element that specifies the title of a web page.
SEO Importance: Tells search engines and users what your page is about.
Example: <title>John Doe - Personal Branding Expert | YourBrand</title>
Meta Descriptions:
Definition: A brief summary of a web page's content that appears under the title tag.
SEO Importance: Not a direct ranking factor, but can improve click-through rates.
Example: <meta name="description" content="Learn from John Doe, a personal branding expert, on how to build a powerful personal brand with YourBrand. Tips, strategies, and more.">
Schema Markup: Using this is *one of the biggest hacks* for telling Google exactly who you are. This also works for blogs, recipe websites, small businesses, and organizations.
Google’s description for how this works: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/organization
Easy tool for creating Schema Markup to embed into your website: https://technicalseo.com/tools/schema-markup-generator/
Header Tags (H1, H2, H3): Use header tags to structure your content. Include your name and brand in some headers naturally.
URL Structure: Make URLs clean and include keywords, such as your name and brand.
Image Optimization: Use relevant images and optimize them with alt text that includes your name and brand. The alt text helps the search engine understand your content better.
Content Quality: Showcase high-quality, informative, and engaging content that incorporates your name and brand naturally.
Internal Linking: Link to other relevant pages within your site using anchor text that includes your name and brand.
Consistency: Have a consistent name. You should stick with one to keep it simple for your audience. Note from Isa: M Hadi is too common a name and people will confusing it with Mahdi
Blogging:
Regular Updates: Write blog posts about topics in your niche, incorporating your name and brand.
Guest Blogging: Write guest posts on other reputable websites, ensuring your name and brand are highlighted.
Mobile optimization:
Responsive Design: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly.
Loading Speed: Optimize your site for fast loading times on all devices.
Local SEO:
Google My Business: Create and optimize a Google My Business profile.
Through this, you can also add descriptions and social media links that the profile will display to viewers.
Local Keyword: Include local keywords in your content if your brand has a local component.
Off-Page SEO:
Activities outside of your website that impact your search engine rankings.
Backlinks: Obtaining quality backlinks from reputable and relevant websites.
Social Media: Maintaining active and engaging social media profiles.
Online Reputation: Managing reviews and online mentions.
Guest Blogging: Writing posts for other websites with backlinks to your site.
Public Relations: Getting media coverage and press releases.
Google Knowledge Panel: Focus on getting a knowledge panel through following all the other SEO tips, then once Google creates one, claim the knowledge panel.
Once claimed, you can verify ownership of all information in the knowledge panel.
Other Points
Notes written by Isa for specific tips I can use to improve my website.
I recommend your starting page to display reviews, this validates yourself very quickly. You can make it on the top of your page or even have some sidebar that constantly shows it? There’s different ways to do it. This is even more important for a brand.
I also think that it’s worth simplifying your site, maybe even just have one page only. I think the featured page is a bit redundant. Whatever you want, just make it super simple for ppl to understand. Also overflowing the page isn’t the best either.
Maybe try and highlight something that you think is unique and distinctive about yourself in regards to your career work/aspirations. Then try and bring evidence to prove your claim. if you can find some focal point for your website, you will start making all the content on your website to support a key point you want to convey.
Well, there you have it. These tips completely changed my digital presence, and I’ve only implemented a portion of them so far.
Major shoutout to Isa for helping me compile all of this. Definitely check out his blog here (hopefully this’ll get him to be more consistent 👀)
If you have any other tips, I’d love if you could leave them in the comments below.
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